At some point, White Sox GM Ken Williams will cease to recall that team in Oakland, the one that was going to move to Chicago under Charlie Finley in the mid-197os, once the White Sox vacated to Denver.

If the butterfly effect didn't turn Oakland GM Billy Beane the player into an MVP, perhaps life would have played out somewhat the same, and Beane would now be the decade-plus tenured GM in Chicago, not Williams. And Beane operating in Chicago would probably mean two Hollywood movies based on his general managing, not one--or at least an Academy Award for Brad Pitt (who says he doesn't like baseball but boy, can he toss a transistor radio in digust!).

That Beane is Williams' doppelganger hardly needs rehash (but if rehash you must, read my man Jimmy Margalus at South Side Sox and scroll down through the comments as well, h/t larry).

The fourth installment of this de facto report card on Ken Williams hones in on the trade partners he's profited most from; there is a fair amount of repetition, but lists nonetheless are broken out by GM and by team. If you're familiar with the first three parts on this blog, few if any of these moves will be news to you, and you very likely already had the breakdown of best and worst trade partners in the back of your mind. But here it is, in top fives all spelled out for you.

Favorite Partners

1. Pat Gillick, Philadelphia Phillies (19.6 net WAR and $53.8 million surplus value in four trades)Moneyball may have played Williams for a rube, but Gillick is a Hall of Fame executive who was picked clean in his first two dealings with the White Sox GM. Freddy Garcia-for-Gavin Floyd stands as Williams' second-best deal, and the Aaron Rowand-for-Jim Thome swap, when factoring the $22 million tucked into Gentleman Jim's front pocket, played out as a masterstroke.

2. Jon Daniels, Texas Rangers (16.9 net WAR and $56.7 million surplus value in two trades)Williams owes his advantage over Daniels almost solely to John Danks, with help from Brandon McCarthy's arrested development.

3. Bill Bavasi, Seattle Mariners (17.0 net WAR and $37.2 million surplus value in two trades)The Freddy Garcia deal proved a steal for Williams; an even bigger one came knocking at his door a year and a half later, when Matt Thornton came to the South Side for Joe Borchard.

4. Doug Melvin, Texas Rangers/Milwaukee Brewers (6.3 net WAR and $18.8 million surplus value in two trades)Williams got a minor win--though neither player produced positively--in his 2000 swap of Aaron Myette to Texas for Royce Clayton. But the big win of his career--spiritually speaking, at the very least--came in dealing Carlos Lee and his larger salary north to the Brewers for Scott Podsednik.

5. Dan O'Dowd, Colorado Rockies (5.1 net WAR and $6.2 million surplus value in four trades)Despite the four trades, Williams' plus value in dealing with O'Dowd comes almost exclusively from snatching Juan Uribe away from the Rockies.

Least Favorite Partners1. Billy Beane, Oakland A's (-20.5 net WAR and -$75.8 million surplus value in four trades)Enough said about Beane, eh?

2. David Littlefield, Pittsburgh Pirates (-5.1 net WAR and -$14 million surplus value in three trades)It's a nice sign that after Beane, the trade losses fall to a much more break-even level for Williams. Of course, that his second-weakest spot came from a GM notorious for his giveaways isn't a good sign.

3. Dayton Moore, Kansas City Royals (-3.6 net WAR and -$19.1 million surplus value in five trades)It's a well-rounded joke that Williams can't keep his hands out of Kansas City, swapping any and all minor players as if there was a rider in his contract he must. The only significant deal torpedoing KW here is acquiring the car wreck that was Mark Teahen.

4. Frank Wren, Atlanta Braves (-4.9 net WAR and -$11.2 million surplus value in three trades)The Scott Linebrink dump in 2010 turned out to be a virtual wash, so this standing almost exclusively centers on the swap of Javier Vazquez to Atlanta in 2008.

5. John Hart, Texas Rangers (-4.5 net WAR and -$10.6 million surplus value in two trades)Merely choosing not to include Frank Francisco in the Carl Everett trade would have kept Hart off of this list of Williams killers.

Favorite Teams1. Philadelphia Phillies (19.6 net WAR and $53.8 million surplus value in four trades)2. Texas Rangers (12.4 net WAR and $46.1 million surplus value in four trades)3. Seattle Mariners (17.0 net WAR and $37.2 million surplus value in two trades)4. Colorado Rockies (5.1 net WAR and $6.2 million surplus value in four trades)5. Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals (4.1 net WAR and $6.6 million surplus value in five trades)The highlight of trades between Chicago and this transitional franchise was acquiring Bartolo Colon for an injured Orlando Hernandez and the retreaded Rocky Biddle and Jeff Leifer. Current GM Mike Rizzo badly burned his bridge with Williams during the Dunn non-trade of 2010, so don't expect any big deals anytime soon between the Pale Hose and and Nasty Nats.

Least Favorite Teams1. Oakland A's (-20.5 net WAR and -$75.8 million surplus value in four trades)2. Kansas City Royals (-3.7 net WAR and -$24.1 million surplus value in seven trades)3. Pittsburgh Pirates (-5.1 net WAR and -$14 million surplus value in five trades)Chicago is a major market fond of crying poor, so perhaps the reason Williams fares so badly in deals with the Kansas Cities and Pittsburghs of the majors is misbegotten solidarity?4. Atlanta Braves (-4.9 net WAR and -$11.2 million surplus value in three trades)5. Cincinnati Reds (-3.2 net WAR and -$2.3 million surplus value in eight trades)

Coming up next is a grab bag of trade and free agent data for the White Sox under Williams, including the projected best- and worst-case scenarios for KW's "active" deals, what teams Williams will not trade with, and some quick and dirty analysis of his trade deadline work in 2012. Also, answers will be forthcoming on burning questions pitting Williams vs. opponents: Who's earned more cash in trades? Who's made worse projections on minor leaguers? And, of course, what do "future considerations" really mean?

The fine print: In many cases, exact details of cash consideration are unavailable, so educated guesses were made. Some player-for-considerations deals have been skipped or omitted. WAR data came only from Baseball-Reference, while yearly dollar/WAR values were estimated primarily from Fangraphs data. Players included in trades who never contributed for the acquiring team at the major league level are not listed. Numbers are through July 28.

About Poetry in Pros

Brett most recently logged a couple of beats at CSNChicago, first following the Blackhawks and covering their first Stanley Cup win in 49 years, then shifting to the South Side and the White Sox.

His sportswriting career began right before the turn of the century, first as an editor for Basketball News and later editing Basketball Digest and Bowling Digest. He has written for Baseball Digest and MLB Trade Rumors, as well as the Chicago White Sox and MLB World Series programs, as well as Slam, Hoop, Inside Stuff, Courtside, Rinkside, and numerous NBA game programs. He has been featured in ESPN the Magazine, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Baltimore Sun and Crain's Chicago Business, and on Comcast Sports Net, NBA-TV, NHL.com, MLB.com, WLS-TV, WGN-TV and the BBC. He's also written features for the NBA Finals and NBA All-Star Game programs.

Brett is the author of the essential baseball reference work 'The Wit and Wisdom of Ozzie Guillen.' When Ozzie first saw the book, on Opening Night 2006, he cracked wise to those in his manager's office, asking, "What's wisdom?" To which owner Jerry Reinsdorf replied, "Don't worry, Ozzie. You don't have any."

A lifelong Chicago sports fan, the first game Brett attended was on Dec. 4, 1976, watching the Bulls snap a (still) franchise-record 13-game losing streak and setting in motion the playoff run that would come to be defined as the Miracle on Madison. At Brett's first White Sox game on June 4, 1977, Richie Zisk of the South Side Hit Men homered over the roof at Comiskey Park at a time when the feat was as rare as a no-hitter. Brett's first Chicago Bears game was on Oct. 7, 1984, when Walter Payton broke the all-time NFL career rushing mark.

More than anything, however, Brett is a baseball and a White Sox fan, having seen hundreds of games over his lifetime, including a walk-off grand slam by Carlos Lee to defeat the Cubbies, the infamous Michael Barrett sucker-punch on A.J. Pierzynski, a then-season record home run by Oscar Gamble in 1977, Bobby Thigpen's 50th season save in 1990, and the classic Blackout tiebreaker win over the Twins in 2008. There have been many pilgrimages to see the team, including a September 1990 drive up from Texas to see a final series at Comiskey Park, an April 1991 flight to watch the otherwise-unmentionable first game at the then-New Comiskey Park, outrunning a snowstorm to see the White Sox be whitewashed in a late September game at Kauffman Stadium, and a jaunt down to the Hovering Sombrero in 2005 to catch the club take on the Tampa Bay Rays.

His highlight as a fan is, of course, witnessing the entire home run of 2005 White Sox playoff victories, including the two extraordinary wins over the Houston Astros at USCF that spurred a World Series sweep. More recently, he took in Mark Buehrle's perfect game in 2009, during which Brett made the boldest prediction imaginable—not of an eventual perfect game, but a Josh Fields grand slam! Brett has watched games in every major league city.

Brett graduated from Texas Christian University with a Journalism and English degree and came thisclose to finishing his English master's at Kansas State University while teaching composition to disinterested agribusiness majors. He's won a number of writing awards in areas as varied as poetry, fiction, features, news reporting and opinion writing. Brett lives in Florida with his incomparable wife, Angelique.

Poetry in Pros Trivia

Now that you know a little bit about Poetry in Pros writer Brett Ballantini, see how you score below. True or false, Brett:

Believes that the ABA saved professional basketball.

Borrowed the title of the first draft of his master's thesis from a Camper Van Beethoven song.

Co-founded and played in a band called Ethnocentric Republicans, who once shared a bill with 15-minutes-of-fame grunge rockers The Toadies.

Considers nachos piled high with jalapenos as his go-to concession food.

Gave a Crunch bar to then-Nestle spokesman Shaquille O'Neal before their first interview together in Milwaukee. Later saw an empty Crunch bar wrapper in Shaq's locker.

Gave three photographs from his personal collection to the Chicago Bulls for their "walk of fame" leading to the locker room at the United Center.

Had four front teeth.

Has appeared in one movie, in which he was murdered when Albert Einstein slammed his head in a door.

Has appeared on the cover of a magazine with a circulation of 100,000. As Santa Claus. Bowling.

Has attended just three games in Wrigley Field as a fan. One was to see the Chicago Sting.

Has been a vegetarian for 30 years.

Has been doused by Bill Veeck's outfield shower in two different decades, in two different White Sox parks.

Hasn't cried over a game since Tito Landrum crushed that homer off of Britt Burns in October 1983.

Has worked for at least seven publications that are no longer in business.

Kissed the Minnie Minoso statue in the outfield concourse at Sox Park on the cheek as a good-luck gesture before Game 1 of the 2005 World Series.

Caught a foul ball while covering a preseason game from the roof of Tempe Diablo Stadium. On his birthday.

To Wit:

"When I build a fire under a person, I do not do it merely because of the enjoyment I get out of seeing him fry, but because he is worth the trouble. It is then a compliment, a distinction; let him give thanks and keep quiet. I do not fry the small, the commonplace, the unworthy."